Warframe’s Spring 2018 Update

In mid-April, Digital Extremes expanded their flagship online shooter, Warframe. Here’s a quick summary of what they added in version 22.17!

First up, there’s a new mission type called Sanctuary Onslaught. An endless mission type, players drop into random environments with hordes of enemies. The goal is to kill as fast as possible and to keep your Efficiency meter from hitting zero as targets get harder and harder to put down.

This is similar to existing mission types like Survival and Defense. There are no resource drops, but increased experience gain makes up for the lack of material gains, and the rounds are incredibly fast. Getting a prize from Sanctuary Onslaught takes about 2-4 minutes, which is great for ninjas with only a little spare time. There’s also an Elite version of this mode, with tougher foes, limits placed on your powers, and even better prizes.

In addition to the new mode, they added three more weapons!

The Veldt is a well-rounded semi-auto rifle. For people who enjoy great punch and high versatility, the Veldt feels great. Throwing on a Shred mod or another fire rate buff can make the Veldt a strong all-purpose punisher.

The Hystrix sidearm is another versatile weapon. The secondary fire cycles through elements of fire, ice, shock, and toxin. Whichever element you choose is added to each shot, independent of mods. This allows for crazy status combos that debilitate enemies with a pile of debuffs.

The Hystrix’s damage, critical stats, fire rate, and reload speed are all above average. This allows you to mod the sidearm for virtually any focus you’d like. With a maxed Pistol Gambit and Target Cracker, this pistol has a 50% crit chance and 3.5x crit multiplier. Coupled with the high fire rate, you’ll be stapling enemies to the walls.

The new melee weapon called the Dual Keres is a critical hit machine. Boasting the highest crit chance of any dual sword type along with solid base damage, the Keres inflicts high damage fast. Unfortunately, it comes with a stance polarity that doesn’t favor high attack speed. You’ll want to reshape these swords with a Forma to equip Swirling Tiger stance. Once you’ve built it up a bit, the Dual Keres will shred even high-level foes.

The new warframe from this update, Khora, fits with the overall theme of versatile additions. She boasts above-average speed, armor, and crowd control abilities. The powers at her disposal include brutal whip attacks, crowd ensnaring traps, and even team healing. Finally, Khora’s ultimate throws out a strangling cage made of whips, which can easily wreak havoc on enemy forces. Along with this wide complement of abilities, Khora brings extra backup.

Khora’s passive summons an extra-powerful Kavat companion. This creature fights alongside you, tearing into foes and healing your team, and you can use any regular Kavat mods to power up this minion. It’s worth mentioning that this special companion can be used in addition to your normal pets. This lets you roll into a mission with your very own squad of three right off the bat!

With all of Khora’s options, mod builds will vary greatly player-to-player. In my view, she benefits most from range and duration boosts like Stretch and Continuity to extend the effectiveness of her traps. Also, mods on your melee weapon are reflected via her Whipclaw power, which allows you to do tons of damage with a critical melee weapon, like the Dual Keres.

As per usual, this update also included more Tennogen cosmetic items, item rebalances, and updated lighting effects. 22.17 brings in a sprinkle of all the new stuff veterans look for in an update, and the new mechanics brought in with Khora and the Hystrix add keep up DE’s spree of new ideas as well. Of course the new content outlined here is free, and if you play on PS4, you don’t even need PS Plus to group up with friends!

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